One of my favorite pastimes is to visit the library & peruse new and old cookbooks.

I think this is probably most definitely violating copyright law, but when I check out cookbooks and find recipes that I like, I'll copy them and file them in my almighty 3-ring green food binder. This binder holds recipes torn from magazines and newspapers, family recipes emailed and handwritten, takeout menus, and paper menus from restaurants we've visited and enjoyed. It's my big book of food awesomeness, and I'm always in search of items to keep it growing.

When a friend mentioned the Food52 Cookbook Club on Facebook, I figured it would be a fun way to experiment with foods I might not normally cook, and to expand my horizons beyond the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library stacks.

Earlier this summer our friends J&C (aka Ditch Chicken) invited us to head up 1-40 to Winston-Salem, NC for a leisurely Saturday trip.

"Chocolate Factory tour and winery visit. You available?" they asked.

"Yes, please," Scott and I answered.

They picked us up in Charlotte and 90 minutes later wheeled into the parking lot of Black Mountain Chocolate. We killed a little time before our 11am-ish tour and walked around the area near Trade Street.

As a former Statesville, NC resident during my high school years, Winston-Salem was a larger city that often lured my friends and I there for shopping and restaurants. Sadly most of this occurred not in W-S's now bustling downtown but the Hanes Mall. Yes, I was a "mall rat," buying way too many cargo jeans and oversize flannel shirts and logo sweatshirts at Old Navy and the Gap (Hey, it was the mid to late '90s.) I also knew W-S from annual trips to Old Salem for Christmas shopping, a ritual with my mothe…

Our first two Brandywine tomatoes are nearly ripe and we found nearly 2 pounds of San Marzanos ready and waiting.
The windowsill is crammed today with these fruits. Yes, a tomato is a fruit.
Tomorrow I'll find a small batch recipe for tomato sauce for the Marzanos. Food in Jars is typically a resource for that. This will be my first rodeo making sauce to can, so if anyone has tips, please share!

After taking on a six-week fitness challenge earlier this year that included a vegetable and protein-heavy meal plan, I'm working vegetables into my diet in ways that I never did prior.

Example: this alien-colored smoothie.

A recipe from McKel Hill's Nutrition Stripped, the Creamy Ginger Green Smoothie has a few unpredictable ingredients. Sure, bananas are common. But throw in an avocado, spinach, ginger, lemon, dates and this curveball - tahini, usually reserved in the Adams household for batches of hummus -- and this ain't your average blended beverage.
I didn't have dates so I swapped it for a few dashes of stevia for sweetness. I also included some extra grated ginger, as I am a ginger freak. We bought a whole root of ginger from the Charlotte Regional Farmer's Market from a vendor selling primarily Asian produce. I've frozen it and just take it out and grate it on my Micropl…